Sara J. Wilkinson, Kimberley James and Richard Reed
This paper seeks to establish the rationale for existing office building adaptation within Melbourne, Australia, as the city strives to become carbon neutral by 2020. The problems…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to establish the rationale for existing office building adaptation within Melbourne, Australia, as the city strives to become carbon neutral by 2020. The problems faced by policy makers to determine which buildings have the optimum adaptation potential are to be identified and discussed.
Design/methodology/approach
This research adopts the approach of creating a database of all the buildings in the Melbourne CBD including details of physical, social, economic and technological attributes. This approach will determine whether relationships exist between attributes and the frequency of building adaptation or whether triggers to adaptation can be determined.
Findings
This research provided evidence that a much faster rate of office building adaptation is necessary to meet the targets already set for carbon neutrality. The findings demonstrate that a retrospective comprehensive examination of previous adaptation in the CBD is a unique and original approach to determining the building characteristics associated with adaptation and whether triggers can be identified based on previous practices. The implication is that a decision‐making tool should be developed to allow policy makers to target sectors of the office building stock to deliver carbon neutrality within the 2020 timeframe.
Practical implications
Drastic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions are required to mitigate global warming and climate change and all stakeholders should be looking at ways of reducing emissions from existing stock.
Originality/value
This paper adds to the existing body of knowledge by raising awareness of the way in which the adaptation of large amounts of existing stock can be fast tracked to mitigate the impact of climate change and warming associated with the built environment, and in addition it establishes a framework for a decision‐making tool for policy makers.
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Junaidah Jailani, Richard Reed and Kimberley James
The purpose of this paper is to address two major challenges faced by sustainable building owners: first, address the gap between an occupant’s expectations of sustainable…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to address two major challenges faced by sustainable building owners: first, address the gap between an occupant’s expectations of sustainable building outcomes and what the building actually provides and second, overcome the lack of user knowledge about sustainability design and operation for a particular with regards to performance.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used a focus group approach to investigate the gap between: user expectations and sustainable building performance. The study surveyed occupants of sustainable office buildings in Melbourne, Australia.
Findings
There is no significant relationship between users’ expectations and users’ experience of sustainable building performance and users’ knowledge about sustainability and the building they were worked in.
Research limitations/implications
The research was limited to sustainable office buildings. New office buildings seeking to incorporate sustainability which need to focus on the needs of tenants in order to maximise value.
Practical implications
There is an urgent need to ensure sustainable office buildings meet the needs of present and future occupiers without compromising short and long-term occupier satisfaction levels with regards to sustainability and operation of the building.
Social implications
Increasing the level of sustainability in office buildings has been a major trend over the past decade however the tenants need to be consulted in the post-occupancy phase.
Originality/value
Little attention has been given in the property management literature to sustainable office buildings and value drivers. This is an original and innovative study, partly due to the recent developments in sustainable buildings.
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Christof Pforr and Michael Volgger
Isolation, large distances and geophysical adversities have influenced common perceptions, and with this have reinforced Northern Australia’s (aka Capricornia’s) image as a…
Abstract
Isolation, large distances and geophysical adversities have influenced common perceptions, and with this have reinforced Northern Australia’s (aka Capricornia’s) image as a difficult and unattractive environment. This representation of ‘otherness’ often is contradicted by the fascination of tourists during their temporary encounter with the ‘North’ and its atmosphere. They appreciate its natural beauty and culture, which in their imagination represents the ‘real’ Australia. Thus, the region’s atmosphere is constructed by aesthetic values defined through social and cultural sensemaking of the place. This chapter explores the atmosphere of northern regions of Australia by adopting a historical, geographical and imaginative perspective to better understand the perceptions that define and distinguish the region from the rest of Australia. Through an auto-ethnographic account of travelling along the Gibb River Road in Western Australia’s Kimberley region, the authors accentuate the atmospheric dichotomy and inbuilt contradictions of tourists’ contemporary quest for ‘otherness’.
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Sue Noy, Teresa Capetola and Rebecca Patrick
Education for Sustainability in Higher Education (ESHE) sits within and across disciplinary settings that share the need for a framework that provides a basis for pedagogy…
Abstract
Purpose
Education for Sustainability in Higher Education (ESHE) sits within and across disciplinary settings that share the need for a framework that provides a basis for pedagogy, assessment and learning outcomes (Kalsoom, 2019). ESHE strives to create transformative learning spaces that help students gain the knowledge and skills they need to understand and contribute to shaping a world based on communities living within the limits of earth’s resources. This paper aims to offer a novel solution to the challenge of teaching students from different disciplines struggling with the complexity of sustainability.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper explores the development of an interdisciplinary subject designed for undergraduate students from four faculties. It presents a case study of pedagogy that moves away from three pillars/concentric circles approaches towards practices based in systems thinking and interactive transformative learning. It describes the iterative process of developing and implementing an infographic: the “Sustainability Wheel of Fortune” (Wheel), to support constructive alignment of content, assessment tasks and learning outcomes.
Findings
The Wheel provides a holistic, interconnected and dynamic focus for framing content and teaching. The pedagogy aligns with sustainability competencies, builds in flexibility in response to changing times and student experiences and provides teachers and students with a common framework for interrogating the possibilities for sustainable futures.
Originality/value
The Wheel is a novel learning tool for contemporary sustainability education. It captures key elements of approaches to and concepts about sustainability, visually reinforces the idea of a holistic interconnected approach and provides a framework that supports the constructive pedagogy of an interdisciplinary sustainability subject.
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Shoaib Riaz, Damian Morgan and Nell Kimberley
The purpose of this paper is to assess the success factors in a large organization that contributed to the success of organizational transformation (OT) through business…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to assess the success factors in a large organization that contributed to the success of organizational transformation (OT) through business diversification using a complex adaptive systems (CAS) framework. This assessment is done to determine how well the CAS framework can explain the success factors that contribute to the success of large-scale organizational change in complex organizations. If the CAS framework is capable of explaining the organizational factors that lead to the success of change implementation, the managers can employ this framework to increase the likelihood of success while implementing change.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses qualitative research methodology. The data were collected from the case study organization (CSO) through 40 in-depth semi-structured interviews and analyzed using thematic deductive analysis approach.
Findings
The CAS framework explains the success factors that contribute to the success of OT through business diversification.
Practical implications
This paper provides a comprehensive guide for change implementation by combining the insights from the CAS framework with identified success factors (for change implementation) from the case organization.
Originality/value
The originality of this paper lies in extending the principles of existing change models, for successful change implementation by using the CAS framework. The prescribed change models and the CAS framework/complexity theory are two distinct sets of literature; this paper successfully merges the two to develop a comprehensive set of guidelines for change implementation. By doing so, this paper highlights the fact that alternative, non-linear, change approaches, instead of conventional multistep change models, can be effective in implementing large-scale organizational change successfully given the complexities of current organizational environments.
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Shoaib Riaz, Damian Morgan and Nell Kimberley
A slew of conventional change models and theories appear in the extant change literature. Despite being theoretically sound, these a priori structured approaches to organizational…
Abstract
Purpose
A slew of conventional change models and theories appear in the extant change literature. Despite being theoretically sound, these a priori structured approaches to organizational change management have questionable application given the rapidly changing business environments. Novel approaches, offering greater flexibility to fast changing external conditions, may offer superior models to organizational change and organizational transformation (OT) in particular. In this paper, the application of a complex adaptive system (CAS) framework, from complexity theory (CT), for managing OT is assessed theoretically.
Design/methodology/approach
A conceptual paper.
Findings
A review of the extant change literature suggests that current approaches and models for organizational change are limited in their ability to reflect OT responses to today's highly dynamic external environments. New models are required to inform and guide organizations. A new model, i.e. CAS framework, is deemed suitable to guide the OT implementation.
Originality/value
This paper critically analyses different approaches to change management, consolidates CAS framework, reviews its applications in the field of management and presents a case for CAS's application for the management of OT.
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Robert Hooijberg, James G. (Jerry) Hunt, John Antonakis and Kimberley B. Boal
A key question with which many senior executives struggle concerns the development of future generations of leaders throughout their organizations. Because these senior leaders…
Abstract
A key question with which many senior executives struggle concerns the development of future generations of leaders throughout their organizations. Because these senior leaders realize that they cannot personally groom these next generations of leaders, they have started to explore what conditions will make the leaders of the future “emerge.” They face the challenge of creating conditions that simultaneously provide opportunities for people to demonstrate their leadership potential and that keep the current business running well. Day, in Chapter 2 of Part 1 of the book, proposed the social architecture most conducive to such leader development. His social architecture has three main pillars: low power distance, psychological safety, and a learning orientation. The two application chapters in this part of the book presented two ways of building such a social architecture for leader development.
The following bibliography focuses mainly on programs which can run on IBM microcomputers and compatibles under the operating system PC DOS/MS DOS, and which can be used in online…
Abstract
The following bibliography focuses mainly on programs which can run on IBM microcomputers and compatibles under the operating system PC DOS/MS DOS, and which can be used in online information and documentation work. They fall into the following categories: